Around the World

Chinese novelist given Nobel Prize

BAGNOLET, France - Gao Xingjian burned his early writings to save himself from communist zealots, was denounced by his own wife and eventually went into exile. Yesterday, the 60-year-old survivor of China's upheaval and oppression became its first Nobel Prize laureate for literature.

The Swedish Academy cited the novelist and playwright for the "bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity" in his writings about the "struggle for individuality in mass culture."

Gao, "very, very surprised" at the honor, declared writing to have been his salvation, even during Mao Tse-tung's brutal 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when intellectuals were silenced and he had to burn "kilos and kilos" of his writings lest they fall into the wrong hands.

"In China, I could not trust anyone, not even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned, people were so brainwashed that even someone from your own family could turn you in," he told The Associated Press.

That actually happened, according to his friend and fellow Chinese exile, poet Bei Ling. "His wife told people from the government that he had been writing literary things at home, and writing literature then was very dangerous," Bei said.

6 Americans held hostage in Ecuador

QUITO, Ecuador - Colombian rebels seized a helicopter from an oil field in the Amazon jungle early yesterday, kidnapping six Americans and at least four others and flying them into Colombian territory, military officials said.

The hostages, who also included a Chilean, an Argentine and the two Frenchmen, were taken at gunpoint before dawn in the El Coca region, 150 miles southeast of the capital.